Review: Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is a tease of the future of Horizon that shouldn’t be missed
We’re getting a third Horizon game.
While anyone who played the second game could have probably told you this, and we even reported as much a few years ago, Burning Shores serves as more of a Horizon 3: Prologue than we expected.
Whether it’s furthering Aloy’s arsenal of tools, recruiting new characters for the looming battle with Nemsis, or directly referencing what the next entry in the series is likely going to begin with, Burning Shores is an essential chapter in the franchise, even if your time in LA isn’t the longest.
Burning Shores takes place in the ruins of Los Angeles, caked in lava and overgrown greenery. The city is on its knees, save for some landmarks such as the Hollywood sign, which will seemingly outlive us all.
Taking place after the main game, the quest begins with Sylens (played by the late Lance Reddick) sending Aloy on a mission to recover more data about the progenitor race that escaped Earth in the main game.
When you reach LA, you’re shot out of the sky by towers that cover the city. You discover these are the work of Walter Londra, who serves as the expansion’s main threat.
Londra is a tech magnate with a God complex that has ambitions of taking to the stars. He’s made his money through mining (the accidental deaths, and exploitation related to which is of little consequence to him).
Not to mention the fact that he’s followed by a sycophantic army of drones who believe him to be humanity’s great intelligence, while he’s just manipulating them to his own ends. Can’t imagine who that’s based on.
It’s clear Guerrilla had plenty of fun writing Londra, although not as much fun as Sam Witwer had playing him. There’s solid satire throughout here, especially if you go digging through the endless text logs that
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